Okay, seriously...why is my kid eating paper?!

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Winslow - posted on 10/25/2012

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my niece is 4months shy of being 2 and eats everything. She has to have food not drink in her mouth at all times. Well the other day she was at her dads and got a hold of toilet paper and was eating it to the point where she could not breathe anymore. the ambulance came and put a tube down her throat to get her to breath but there was too much toilet paper to get it all the way down but once they did she was coughing up blood took her to Kennestone they couldn't do anything for her so they had to fly her to Scottish Rite. She was sedated for 2 days on the ventilator in icu. They took the ventilator off 2 times she wouldnt breathe on her own until all of the paper was out. They had 2 tubes going down her throat. One was pulling the paper out in dime sizes. So DO NOT THINK it okay to eat paper. She had doing it for days and it built up and cause this. She is now out of the hospital and slowly getting back to herself.

Thank you, ladies! Jodi: Yes, she kinda goes in a trance while she's doing it. Like I said it's not all that often. It's just a pain in the butt to have to clean up all the itty bitty little pieces of soggy paper. ;P

It's called " the oral Stage". They either grow out of it or they don't. Nothing to worry about. My 8 year old still does it and so did my ex (37). Not an issue. Worry as to whether they ok or not! Good luck.

its normal and common i have 2 kids and my oldest is 5 years and he ate paper til he was 3 an d they told me it was normal now my 11 month old baby is staring to eat paper i have to hide all paers from him.. but i wouldnt worry its a phase

Kate, is she doing it almost like she is in some sort of trance? Taylah does things like that when she is off in her own little zone. She will sit there in her zone and stick a texta up her nose( I know, gross), or chew on her hair, and really doesn;t seem like she knows she's doing it. Almost like it is some sort of habit. Taylah also tears and chews paper, but usually she does it when she is pretending to be a puppy dog....... and she doesn't eat it, just rips it to shreds with her mouth and pretends to eat it!!!

When toddlers chew on items that are not food, its very common. Its called pica. If your child has not shown this behavior for awhile and is now started doing it again, you can check two causes with a simple blood test. It can be low iron or high blood lead. it can also be caused by emotional stress.